Friday, May 31, 2013

OK, I know it's June and some of these photos are older than May, but you get the idea. As usual apologies, my phone is cheap and only really works in good bright outdoor light.

Mouse's drawings of MineCraft

Climbing near the Cathedral

At playgroup

Playing in parks

More Suomenlinna

At the library

Mouse had his grading at karate this week. Even though he's missed a lot of lessons towards the end, the instructor invited him to the grading and he got his red stripe. Hopefully he'll be keen to continue next autumn as he enjoys it and he's good at it.

Monday, May 13, 2013

A bit of a crazy week, two Mother's Day coffee mornings, two bank holidays, no regular medical appointments and sunshine.

One big theme in the Clan house just now is fairies and princesses. The Fairy Bumptious or is it Princess Bumpshie? There's obviously some gene for pink princess madness and my daughter has it to spare. We haven't exposed her to much princessy media, but she seems to come by it naturally.

The accessorising of her various costumes

The diva behaviour: showing off her ice cream covered face for the camera but then pulling a pout because there's a bit of ice cream on her thumb

The affinity for the royal lifestyle: combing her long locks before a mirror and getting her prince to place her pink croc on her foot. We grin and bear it.

We went to Suomenlinna Saturday to enjoy the sunshine and see some cannons. We had our lunch at Bar Valimo which is a lovely place to eat right on the water. There was lots of climbing and running, but it was really windy. Too bad we missed the kites the next day, once again I find these things out too late.

We had another bank holiday on Thursday this week, so it's been a very laid back couple of days. The weather has been pretty nice so we've reclaimed our sun trap patio for laundry, planting seeds, lounging, playing.

Yesterday was Mother's Day here and I had a lovely day. I had the perfect gifts: a lie in, a tidy downstairs, breakfast and tea ready for me and lovely pictures and cards from my Weans. Then we had a play outside in the sun.

Waiting for her seeds to sprout, seconds after planting them.

After dinner we made dinosaur cookies. I couldn't seem to get Martha's recipe to work, so I pulled out some frozen ready made gingerbread dough and it was much easier for impatient children. We didn't have any plastic bugs, but the kids used our dinosaur toys to make footprints, imprints of their heads, tails and spines. Fun and yummy.

Friday, May 10, 2013

As I said in my last post we've now been in Finland for 3 years. It feels strange to think that Bump has spent her entire life here and knows little of Scotland, that Foo has been here over half of his life and Mouse just short of that. Finland is now our home, even though it started off as just a short adventure.

I also realised today that I have been living in Europe for one year longer than I lived in the United States where I was born and grew up. This isn't what I imagined for myself when I was a child, but it's a good life even if a bit bumpy at times. But then again, would I enjoy it as much if life didn't keep things unexpected and exciting?

Here are some random photos of our three years here.

First job when arriving in our new house in Finland.

First morning waking up in their new beds.

It's easy to forget how pregnant I was when we arrived (7 and a half months) and how stressful it all was figuring out how to have a baby in this country.

But it was all worth it in the end.

There was a lot to get used to. All the snow and cold, the layers upon layers of winter clothes.

New modes of transport to get used to.

But there were so many positives, adventures, new friends, opportunities we'd never have if we had stayed in Scotland and not risked so much coming to Finland.

We've learned so much and changed as a family, realising that we could survive so many crazy challanges. And it's only the beginning and there's so much more to do, see and explore that we can't help but be excited and overwhelmed.